I have the following dataframe:

 a b x y
0 1 2 3 -1
1 2 4 6 -2
2 3 6 9 -3
3 4 8 12 -4

How can I move columns b and x such that they are the last 2 columns in the dataframe? I would like to specify b and x by name, but not the other columns.

12 Answers

You can rearrange columns directly by specifying their order:

df = df[['a', 'y', 'b', 'x']]

In the case of larger dataframes where the column titles are dynamic, you can use a list comprehension to select every column not in your target set and then append the target set to the end.

>>> df[[c for c in df if c not in ['b', 'x']] + ['b', 'x']] a y b x
0 1 -1 2 3
1 2 -2 4 6
2 3 -3 6 9
3 4 -4 8 12

To make it more bullet proof, you can ensure that your target columns are indeed in the dataframe:

cols_at_end = ['b', 'x']
df = df[[c for c in df if c not in cols_at_end] + [c for c in cols_at_end if c in df]]

1

cols = list(df.columns.values) #Make a list of all of the columns in the df
cols.pop(cols.index('b')) #Remove b from list
cols.pop(cols.index('x')) #Remove x from list
df = df[cols+['b','x']] #Create new dataframe with columns in the order you want

You can use to way below. It's very simple, but similar to the good answer given by Charlie Haley.

df1 = df.pop('b') # remove column b and store it in df1
df2 = df.pop('x') # remove column x and store it in df2
df['b']=df1 # add b series as a 'new' column.
df['x']=df2 # add b series as a 'new' column.

Now you have your dataframe with the columns 'b' and 'x' in the end. You can see this video from OSPY :

1

For example, to move column "name" to be the first column in df you can use insert:

column_to_move = df.pop("name")
# insert column with insert(location, column_name, column_value)
df.insert(0, "name", column_to_move)

similarly, if you want this column to be e.g. third column from the beginning:

df.insert(2, "name", column_to_move )

1

similar to ROBBAT1's answer above, but hopefully a bit more robust:

df.insert(len(df.columns)-1, 'b', df.pop('b'))
df.insert(len(df.columns)-1, 'x', df.pop('x'))

1

This function will reorder your columns without losing data. Any omitted columns remain in the center of the data set:

def reorder_columns(columns, first_cols=[], last_cols=[], drop_cols=[]): columns = list(set(columns) - set(first_cols)) columns = list(set(columns) - set(drop_cols)) columns = list(set(columns) - set(last_cols)) new_order = first_cols + columns + last_cols return new_order

Example usage:

my_list = ['first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth', 'fifth', 'sixth']
reorder_columns(my_list, first_cols=['fourth', 'third'], last_cols=['second'], drop_cols=['fifth'])
# Output:
['fourth', 'third', 'first', 'sixth', 'second']

To assign to your dataframe, use:

my_list = df.columns.tolist()
reordered_cols = reorder_columns(my_list, first_cols=['fourth', 'third'], last_cols=['second'], drop_cols=['fifth'])
df = df[reordered_cols]

Simple solution:

old_cols = df.columns.values
new_cols= ['a', 'y', 'b', 'x']
df = df.reindex(columns=new_cols)

1

An alternative, more generic method;

from pandas import DataFrame
def move_columns(df: DataFrame, cols_to_move: list, new_index: int) -> DataFrame: """ This method re-arranges the columns in a dataframe to place the desired columns at the desired index. ex Usage: df = move_columns(df, ['Rev'], 2) :param df: :param cols_to_move: The names of the columns to move. They must be a list :param new_index: The 0-based location to place the columns. :return: Return a dataframe with the columns re-arranged """ other = [c for c in df if c not in cols_to_move] start = other[0:new_index] end = other[new_index:] return df[start + cols_to_move + end]

You can use pd.Index.difference with np.hstack, then reindex or use label-based indexing. In general, it's a good idea to avoid list comprehensions or other explicit loops with NumPy / Pandas objects.

cols_to_move = ['b', 'x']
new_cols = np.hstack((df.columns.difference(cols_to_move), cols_to_move))
# OPTION 1: reindex
df = df.reindex(columns=new_cols)
# OPTION 2: direct label-based indexing
df = df[new_cols]
# OPTION 3: loc label-based indexing
df = df.loc[:, new_cols]
print(df)
# a y b x
# 0 1 -1 2 3
# 1 2 -2 4 6
# 2 3 -3 6 9
# 3 4 -4 8 12

You can also do this as a one-liner:

df.drop(columns=['b', 'x']).assign(b=df['b'], x=df['x'])

2

This will move any column to the last column :

1. Move any column to the last column of dataframe :

df= df[ [ col for col in df.columns if col != 'col_name_to_moved' ] + ['col_name_to_moved']]

2. Move any column to the first column of dataframe:

df= df[ ['col_name_to_moved'] + [ col for col in df.columns if col != 'col_name_to_moved' ]]

where col_name_to_moved is the column that you want to move.

I use Pokémon database as an example, the columns for my data base are

['Name', '#', 'Type 1', 'Type 2', 'Total', 'HP', 'Attack', 'Defense', 'Sp. Atk', 'Sp. Def', 'Speed', 'Generation', 'Legendary']

Here is the code:

import pandas as pd df = pd.read_html(')[0] cols = df.columns.to_list() cos_end= ["Name", "Total", "HP", "Defense"] for i, j in enumerate(cos_end, start=(len(cols)-len(cos_end))): cols.insert(i, cols.pop(cols.index(j))) print(cols) df = df.reindex(columns=cols) print(df)

1

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